Cyber Security Compliance is Nothing Without Measurement

These days, companies need to do whatever they can to make sure their business is cyber security compliant. Being compliant means your company is following certain practices to protect your customers, your network, and most importantly, yourself.

A CIO’s main responsibility is to implement the right cyber security measures for your company. But, another part of their job is guiding you to make the right decisions for your company thereafter. So, here’s how we can all do a better job of taking cyber security just another step further:

Compliance is Important, But It’s Not the Only Factor

One of the main reasons businesses invest in the services of a CIO to begin with is because it’s imperative that they are cyber security compliant. However, many CIOs are only keeping this in mind when setting up the right security infrastructure, and unfortunately, that’s not going to help a business in the long run. All security decisions need to be made with the business mindset, because if the actual risk can’t be understood or evaluated from a business point of view, why would any company leader take interest?

Businesses Should Be Involved in Making Cyber Security Decisions from the Start

Although your CIO is the primary decision maker when it comes to cyber security, it’s likely that they are working with many businesses at once. The needs of your business may be very different from the needs of another, and you want to be absolutely sure that your needs are constantly being kept in mind. Therefore, the best way to go about this is by being involved in cyber security decisions from the start. Be proactive in keeping the conversation open and make sure you’re present when those big decisions are being made. Your CIO is allowed to guide you in making these decisions and they should. After all, one of the reasons you’re hiring them in the first place is because you’re not quite equipped to do these things on your own.

There Should Always Be Consistent Measurement and Evaluation by Businesses

Once a decision has been made, it’s important to recognize that it won’t be the last. Cyber security is an ongoing process, and it’s both your job and the CIO’s job to stay involved at all times. And, once a decision is implemented, the impact of that decision should be consistently monitored, measured, and evaluated for future purpose. This is really to say, can you be certain that your cyber security system has worked, or is it time for a new solution?

Make Sure Your CISO Has a Good Reporting Record

It goes without saying that the Chief Information Securiry Officer (CISO) that your company is working with should have a great track record. The IFS, or Information Security Forum, has reported that many of these CIOs aren’t doing their job when it comes to reporting their findings of KPIs (Key Peformance Indicators) and KRIs (Key Risk Indicators) to their clients. This goes back to a previous point: that decisions need to be made from a business — your business’ — point of view. Of all the things to consider when hiring a CIO, this is a question you don’t want to leave out.

There are many steps to making sure your business is paying the utmost attention to its security situation. Is your CIO helping you be part of the process?